Monday, February 06, 2006

An interesting development

We have all heard about the fake cartoons that were distributed in the Middle East. These were considerably more offensive than the original ones and my guess is that many of the rioters only ever saw those fakes (if, indeed, they saw anything at all).

The story has developed. The fake cartoons were taken by the Danish imams, who, led by Imam Ahmad Abu Laban, a man who has expressed sympathy with terrorists, toured the Middle Eastern countries in December.

“The Imam and others toured the Middle East showing the cartoons but adding three more new ones that were far more offensive than anything the paper published. He (Imam Ahmad Abu Laban) told us they were from threatening letters but promising to give us copies of those letters, he never did.”

And the purpose of this interesting idea of diplomatic negotiations? To force Western Europe to create a new set of rules for itself. Could those rules be Sharia Law? Not to be excluded, surely.

“In other words, this was indeed a campaign, planned by important members of the Islamic world’s power structure, intended to force Denmark to comply with Sharia requirements. A new norm, that a western nation would conform to Sharia regardless of its free exression tradition, would be on the way to being established.”

And, of course, this would explain what was puzzling many, including us on this blog: the timing of the outburst. Those cartoons were published in September. Why has the violent protest erupted now?

What Arab sympathisers are reluctant to point out, however, is the torrent of anti-Semitic and anti-American filth that is flowing off the pens Middle East cartoonists. On the other hand, this one, illustrated above, offers its own commentary on this selective myopia.